CHAPTEK XX. 



THE COFFEE INDTTSTET IS MEXICO AND OTHEK COUUTEIES. 



The coffee-tree finds a congenial home in Mexico and in Cen- 

 tral America. 



" It may be an unknown fact to many Americans," writes 

 the Hon. John "W. Foster, United States Minister to Mexico, 

 " that at our very doors, in Mexico, our neighboring republic, 

 there exists the agiicultural capacity to produce all the coffee that 

 can be consumed in the United States, and of a quality equal to 

 the best grown in any country. Mexico, it is true, is exporting 

 very little coffee and scarcely figures in the coffee-producing coun- 

 tries, but its capacity and adaptability for its production have 

 been tested by more than fifty years of successful cultivation." 



A correspondent of the JVew York Herald wrote to that jour- 

 nal in February, 18Y9, that " the peculiarly adaptable soil and 

 climate, altitude, and condition of atmosphere necessary to the 

 production of coffee are possessed by an area of no narrow limit 

 in the State of Yera Cruz, while in the States of Jalisco and 

 Michoacan the lands yielding coffee crops from perennial trees 

 may be measured by the scores of leagues." 



The government is encouraging the production, and if Mex- 

 ico is spared political troubles, she is likely to add very largely 

 to the world's supply within the next ten years. The same 

 causes, however, which have in the past paralyzed the growth 

 of the nation's general prosperity have equally retarded the 

 progress of this branch of agriculture. The coffee production 

 of Mexico has, heretofore, been almost entirely limited to sup- 

 plying the home demand, which is quite large; but it is now 

 creating a considerable foreign trade, the export to the United 

 States for the year ending June 30, 1880, reaching a total of 



